Some people feel a strong separation between inside and outside. If you’re a part of their family, neighborhood, church, school, or a friend-of-a-friend, then you’re an insider. Everyone else is an outsider. They say, “The reason you go to university is for the connections you’ll have for life.” In business, they give preferential treatment to their inside circle. (This is cronyism.)

Other people feel no separation. You’re treated equally, no matter where you’re from or who you know. There are no outsiders. If extra-strong bonds are made, it’s based on who you are now - not where you came from or where you’ve been.

One will feel more natural to you. Like your tendency to be an introvert vs extrovert, or conservative vs liberal, these base world-views will shape your preferences for being local-focused or global-focused.

[… ]So there’s the trade-off. By being so local-focused, I’m not being as useful as I was when I was making things online.

Part of what I think defined cyber-utopian was how they viewed social capital.

Is the web’s promise to create bonding or bridging tools? That is, do we focus on ways to strengthen the connections to those like us, or find ways to create new connections across traditional boundaries?